Personally, I think this leads us closer to a great war in the middle east.
Granted, we have issues at "home" that need to be taken care of, an economy in ruins (et al) but there has to be other ways we can come up with
cash, rather than let Israel be cut loose and surrounded by hostile neighbors. This Arab Spring I keep hearing about, the protests, the uprisings,
tensions with Pakistan/China. . .

What has Israel done to ever benefit America. If anything our friendship has made the us hated by Muslims. Suddenly their problem is our problem.
Im sure you know about the false flags they've launched in the past. I just dont see why people keep saying they are a great friend.

What has Israel done to ever benefit America. If anything our friendship has made the us hated by Muslims. Suddenly their problem is our problem.
Im sure you know about the false flags they've launched in the past. I just dont see why people keep saying they are a great friend.

I'd see them more as a "strategic" friend. Where we have a foothold in the middle east. Like it or not, we are tethered to the middle east for oil.

"...just what Israel actually does for the USA". "for" ? maybe "to" would be better if you look at the cases of
Israel spying on the US military and military technology. Not to mention the USS Liberty...

That's what I see. Without US support, Israel is left wide open for any number of hostile enemies. And Israel will not hesitate to use it's
nuclear arsenal if threatened.
This is a prelude to nastier things, in my humble opinion.

Contrary to propaganda, Israel does not actually have any "hostile enemies" worth mention. There are some gangs in Gaza - and that's just
what they are, gangs - but none of the neighboring nations wants to or can pose a threat to Israel.

Turkey: Despite chilled relations lately, still a "friend" to Israel.
Syria: Busy with internal conflict, has been focusing purely on diplomatic methods against Israel for over a decade now
Lebanon: No offensive capability worth mention; politically unwilling. Has Hezbollah in the south, but even their interest is keeping Israel out of
Lebanon
Jordan: No offensive capability, has been in a prosperous peace agreement with Israel since the 90's.
Egypt: Internal issues, has vested interest in keeping Camp David treaty going.
Iraq: You're kidding, right?
Iran: Is manifestly more afraid of Israel than Israel is of it. doesn't really have the offensive capability, and the actual leadership of the
country is interested in neutral, if not normalized relations with "the west"
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, other Gulf States: The Saudi air force has more jets than pilots to fly them. nobody else has anything resembling a real
military; US is effectively the gulf region's military power.
Palestinians: Despite gang activity, Palestinian leadership is committed to diplomatic / political methods of gaining redress; has no functional
military, much less one capable of taking on Israel.

The myth of "enemies at the gate" is one promulgated by the Zionists who rule Israel, and the reason they do so is plain; they do it to terrify the
rest of Israel into keeping the Zionists in power.

To answer your question later in the thread, yes, our close alliance with Israel injures our interests in hte middle east. As you noted, oil is our
main interest in the middle east; Israel has none of this stuff. Thus Israel's antagonism of the people who DO have oil, reflected on the US who arms
and enables Israel, harms our interests in the region.

Right now Israel's biggest worry is going to be the rise of a peaceable, Western-friendly democracy somewhere in the region; the US will drop Israel
like a bad habit (which it is) in that case. Welcome to realpolitik.

Thats because you're so blinded by mainstream media, you fail to see just what Israel actually does for the USA; their military and intelligence ties
are the closest of any other of your allies!

Except the mainstream media is breathlessly pro-Israel. And the intelligence we get from Israel tends to be heavily flawed and often deliberately
skewed; We'll listen to the United Kingdom and trust their word, but we double-check the stuff Israel tells us. Especially after they gave us all
that crap intel on Iraq - and then tried to give us the same intel, nearly verbatim, regarding Iran; even the Republicans wised up to the fact Israel
was trying to use the US military as its own personal hit squad.

My thought was, there are many ATS members rather vocal in their support for Ron Paul, and itching for him to be POTUS. Based on my understanding of
his over-all stance of "smaller federal government"....wondering if he's express his opinions about International aid programs? Those fans of his,
might know best.

Clamoring for less foreign aid expenditures, and such, a sort of return to isolationism....is this the desire of those RP supporters? And, Tea Party
too??

Is what Obama doing a bit of pull-back, that would be trumpeted and applauded, if it were Ron Paul doing it??

Israel, Britain and Russia have continued to use the old fashioned method of obtaining intelligence, this is where the USA lacks and this is why they
fail intelligence gathering.

In regards to Iraq; lets make it clear that WMD include that of nuclear-biological-chemical weapons and Saddam did in fact have the latter two. Why
was it covered up? Because it's products were purchased from the USA (via a company owned by the Bush family), France & Germany; so what intel they
received was pretty much spot on.

Afghanistan, you're on your own there but I do know this much that the US invasion had nothing to do with OBL.

Clamoring for less foreign aid expenditures, and such, a sort of return to isolationism....is this the desire of those RP supporters? And, Tea Party
too??

Is what Obama doing a bit of pull-back, that would be trumpeted and applauded, if it were Ron Paul doing it??

I'm not going to pretend that I'm a SME on foreign policy. As to what RP would do, Tea Party would do, I don't follow the pack blindly.
I would love to see us pull out of the "wars" but at what cost?
Does the benefit of being an active partner with Israel outweigh the costs?

Would isolationism benefit us long term/short term or both?

This is one of the reasons I'm asking more questions on this thread than trying to defend a position.
I just don't know enough yet.

The consternation perpetuates lots of activity for many different interests. There is a whole lot of money to be made
keeping this issue permanently tenuous, it serves a financial purpose just like the War On Terror. Many people
lose business and power once peace is declaired, unfortunately war and fear are profitable... I think individuals
work very hard to keep this rolling along on all sides, but thats just me.

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